47. Bella - The Bell Tower Ruins
Chapter forty-seven
Bella - The Bell Tower Ruins
We head out immediately. At that moment, Mayor Calloway arrives at the clinic with Mike Lauder beside him, both wearing silver chains and carrying enough weapons to invade a small country.
“The cavalry is here to help,” the mayor says as he steps into the clinic.
The mayor has: Three large flashlights, four hunting rifles, five silver knives, a rifle, several handguns, three extra lanterns, and what appears to be a crossbow strapped awkwardly across his back. He says he also has grenades in his pouch.
Mike carries a baseball bat wrapped in silver wire.
Finn stares at them from the clinic doorway.
“…Are you two preparing for monsters or the apocalypse?”
“Both seemed prudent,” Calloway replies breathlessly.
Charlie sniffs the crossbow suspiciously. The small nervous man has escalated emotionally.
Despite the absurdity of it, relief moves through me when they step inside. Because ridiculous or not, they came. And Finn needs backup. I don’t know what’s going to happen out there.
As we are leaving, Charlie says, Bella, please be careful. Please come back.
I kneel down and hug him. “I will.”
--
Darius, Lucy and I leave followed by the vampire contingent. We’re headed to the old bell ruins in The Wilds as quickly as possible.
The fog swallows the road almost immediately. By the time we leave the edge of town behind, Bloodhaven Cove no longer feels like a real place. Only lantern light keeps us tethered to the world.
Darius walks beside me in complete silence, one hand resting lightly against the small of my back as we move through the narrow trail leading toward the northern edge of The Wilds.
Protective. Possessive. Constantly aware of me.
The deeper we move into The Wilds, the stranger the forest becomes. The trees lean wrong. The fog moves unnaturally. And underneath everything, I hear whispering. It’s faint. Almost impossible to make out, but there.
Darius hears my breathing change instantly. Probably my heartbeat, too.
“You hear it now?”
“Yes.”
Ahead of us, the ruins emerge slowly through the fog. Stone, broken arches, a few broken bells blackened with age
The air feels odd here. Very wrong.
The old bell tower ruins sit in the fog, jagged stone rising from the forest like the bones of something ancient and buried.
The vampires following behind us move almost soundlessly through the mist. Victor. Isabelle. Charles. Two others carrying swords and Lucy’s ritual supplies.
Lucy herself mutters chants while walking ahead, scattering black salt into the fog.
“Please tell me that’s symbolic,” Isabelle whispers.
“No,” Lucy replies. “It’s preventative.”
Without a word, Lucy steps into the center of the ruins and begins building the containment circle.
She uses chalk to draw a circle, then scatters silver powder in careful spirals across the wet stone.
She places bones and black candles at precise intervals and hangs tiny silver bells from twisted iron stakes.
As she chants under her breath, the circle begins to glow faintly beneath the fog—as if the ruins themselves remember this magic.
Darius turns toward the vampires accompanying us, his expression sharpening into something ancient and commanding.
“Spread out,” he orders quietly. “Full perimeter around the ruins. Be ready for him. Be ready for anything.”
The vampires move immediately, vanishing soundlessly into the fog between the trees while silver lanterns flicker through the mist like distant watchfires. Darius watches them disappear, jaw tight with tension.
Suddenly, I hear whispering. It says my name.
Bella…
A chill tears through me. Lucy glances at me sharply.
“Don’t answer it.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“The original ward line ran through here,” she says quietly. “My grandmother bound Arthur beneath the forest using silver bells and blood magic. It was her containment spell.”
My pulse jumps. Arthur. The original monster. The source of all of the problems. Darius reacts to Lucy’s words.
“He should have stayed buried.”
Lucy’s expression darkens. “He almost did.”
Lucy now arranges candles around the ancient symbol.
“Bella,” she says sharply. “You have the dagger and the potion?”
“Yes.”
Suddenly the whispering changes. It’s louder now, closer, more distinct.
Bella… My Bella…
And then movement. Something shifts between the trees quickly. The fog parts briefly. And I see eyes. Black, ancient and hungry.
The forest erupts and a scream tears through the trees behind us. One of the vampires crashes violently into the ruins, blood exploding across the stones.
Chaos detonates instantly.
Lucy’s magical bells begin ringing.
Darius shoves me behind him immediately as snarling echoes through the fog.
Something ancient is awake. And nearby.